The Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is excited to announce the launch of a new pilot program: The Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture, and with it two new members of the CALS Global team: Jamie Lucero, who will act as the Project Director, and Samantha Jameson, Communications Manager. Learn more about them below!
The Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture
The Virginia Tech Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (known as the Virginia Tech Alliance) is a pilot program that will reward farmers and ranchers for adopting climate-smart agriculture practices and convene stakeholders to generate guidance for a fully realized program that could reach all producers in the U.S. The pilot will launch in Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota and Virginia with a budget of $80 million as part of the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program. Lead applicant Virginia Tech will administer the project with participation from 14 additional partners. Please visit www.allianceforcsa.org for more information, and to sign up for updates.
Jamie joins the Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture as the Project Director, responsible for coordinating and facilitating the planning, implementation, and evaluation of all activities associated with The Alliance. Her day-to-day responsibilities include building on and nurturing strong partnerships, providing administrative and fiscal support, planning and implementing resource development strategies, and leading the Alliance team.
Previously, Jamie served as the director of alumni relations for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech. She grew up on a small farm in southwestern Pennsylvania where her family raises purebred Simmental cattle. She was a member of 4-H and the American Junior Simmental Association. She received her B.S. in Agriculture from the University of Central Missouri (1999), an M.S. in Animal Science – Reproductive Physiology from Kansas State University (2001), and an M.S. in Agricultural and Extension Education in the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education at Virginia Tech (2021). Jamie and her husband, Warren, have two daughters, Emma and Madison.
Samantha is the Communications Manager for the Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture, overseeing collaboration and outreach across the four partner states. She will work with more than a dozen partner and producer groups to alert farmers of the pilot, communicate the program’s value to key stakeholders, and market the impact of the partnership. For more information about the pilot, please email her or reach out to allianceforcsa@vt.edu.
Previously, Samantha has spent over a decade working across multiple sectors to advance sustainability in agriculture in Virginia, Texas, Europe, and the United Kingdom. She received her B.S. in Geography, Sustainable Architecture and Planning from Texas A&M University (2014) and her M.S. in Environmental Partnership Management from the University of Aberdeen (2019).